TV signals for three television stations were switched off on January 30, 2018. PHOTO | KALUME KAZUNGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Kenya on Wednesday woke up to a second day of media blackout
with no word from the authorities as to why the TV stations were closed.
The disconnection came in the wake of a mock swearing
of former prime minister Raila Odinga as people’s president at Uhuru
Park on Tuesday.
The switch-off, which was executed
through the sector regulator, the Communications Authority of Kenya
(CA), easily amounts to the most blatant breach of the Constitution by
the Jubilee administration this far.
It amounts to
government in disregard of due process and in disregard of the
principles that we have all agreed will govern us as a people – and
which are prescribed in the Constitution. Disconcertingly, the CA has
not officially communicated any grounds or reasons for its action and
has instead chosen to leave the country guessing.
Interior CS Fred Matiangi has suggested that possible incitement
is the reason for the shutdown, which is under investigation. The CA,
or the government for that matter, knows very well that any licensee
knows how to comply with the relevant laws, and in case of any
infraction, what the consequences are.
Article 34
of the Constitution explicitly bars the regulators from interfering with
broadcasting, which they have now done with unprecedented impunity.
Section
3 of that article states inter alia: “The State shall not—(a) exercise
control over or interfere with any person engaged in broadcasting, the
production or circulation of any publication or the dissemination of
information by any medium.”
It goes on to stress that
broadcasters are free of political interests and only subject to
licensing rules. That, however, is not the message one got when apart
from the State broadcaster, only the Kenyatta family-owned K24 remained
on air.
Ironically, it was airing the post-mortem of the event in the evening even as others remained off air.
Parliament
must launch a probe into this matter and determine if the CA observed
the stipulates of the Constitution. And if so, whether they did so
equitably?
If not, the law must apply to them
equitably. Ironically, this is just one of the cases where hasty State
action has threatened jobs and enterprises.
From
interest caps to anti-gaming war, people with no access to power are
sleeping hungry. The government must decide whether ruining the private
sector is one of its mandates.
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